Happy New Year! And welcome back to Beyond High School.
I want to turn your attention to a story we published earlier this month in partnership with Open Campus about the first incarcerated professor to be employed by a Colorado university.
As part of that story, I got to go inside Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, a prison in Cañon City, in November to see David Carrillo teach.
Almost immediately, you could sense how positive a role model he is to others. While his students still joked with him, I could always tell how much everyone respected him.
There’s so much in the course of reporting and writing that doesn’t get included in a story. One I want to highlight is a story about a student who worked hard to get into the class, but then began to doubt himself.
The student – a youngster, as the 49-year-old Carrillo called him – almost dropped out because he believed he wasn’t cut out for college. The classwork, its demands, and juggling prison life are difficult.
But Carrillo didn’t quit on him.
“I worked with him to get over some of those limiting beliefs,” Carrillo said. “Now the guy, he’s on rocket power.”
Carrillo spreads that belief to his students, encouraging them to strive for more than just the moments that led to them entering prison.
All the incarcerated students he taught felt they could get a degree and better themselves because they saw how Carrillo led the way. I even asked one of the students if he was going to be a professor someday like Carrillo. He answered maybe, but then added after a contemplative pause how great that would be.
Have a great day. As always, you can reach me at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
